Blissey
General Information Tier: OU Normal Type Natural Cure/Serene Grace Current Smogon Movesets WishBliss Blissey @ Leftovers Ability: Natural Cure Nature: Calm EVs: 252 Defense/80 Sp. Attack/176 Sp. Defense ~Wish ~Protect/Softboiled ~Flamethrower/Ice Beam ~Toxic The #1 special wall in the game has had to reinvent itself slightly to keep up with DPP's new special threats. The general idea is to switch in, use Wish and then Protect to mimic the effects of Softboiled. The advantages are that Protect allows you to waste more turns for PP stalling and Toxic damage, and Wish can be passed to other members of your team. Additionally, Wish can be used preemptively (with more than half of your HP intact, even at full health), allowing Blissey to attack on the next turn without having to worry about losing a large chunk of health. The Wish / Protect combination is all the more appealing on Blissey in DPP thanks to the popularity of Choice item users. The silver lining to this set resides in the fantastic safety net Protect casts over Blissey. At any point over around 50% HP, WishBliss will not be threatened by Choice-boosted Pursuit from Pokémon like Tyranitar, Scizor, and Heracross simply because of Protect. Blissey can use Protect to scout the foe's attack, and then either switch or stay in depending on what attack the opponent is locked into. If your opponent use Pursuit, Blissey will be Protected and can stay in and Wish the next turn while taking a 40 base power Pursuit assured to do less than 35% to her (assuming the threat stays in, which it may not), then follow up with Protect on the subsequent turn to guarantee the 50% HP recovery. If they attack straight up with one of their powerful STAB moves, you're more than free to switch out to the appropriate counter with which your team should be equipped anyway. This matchup becomes even more attractive when you factor in the possibility that the above Pursuit threats could likely have switched into a Wish in the first place. Remember though, this strategy, like most, can be used against you if you rely too heavily upon it. Consider a Tyranitar heads-up against a Blissey that used Wish on the switch. Tyranitar uses Crunch as Blissey Protects, and then switches out of the full health Blissey to which it no longer poses such a large threat. But later, when Tyranitar is heads-up against the same Blissey, it uses a dangerous Dragon Dance as Blissey Protects, assuming that Tyranitar was of the Choice Band variety. There are a number of Pokémon who can play similar tricks (e.g. Swords Dance Scizor, Mixed Salamence), so it is important to keep this in mind when using Protect. Although it may seem strange to use two healing moves on the same set, Softboiled has a number of advantages over Protect, not the least of which is PP stalling. Wish only has 16 PP, so if you are involved in a long, drawn-out stall battle, Wish can get worn down as you try to heal both Blissey and its teammates with only one move. If Blissey also has Softboiled, it can heal itself with that and rely on Wish to heal its teammates. Another disadvantage of Protect is that with Wish + Protect as Blissey's only method of healing, a special attacker could hit Blissey as it switches in, then go to a big threat like Tyranitar as Blissey uses Wish. If Blissey stays in to get healed, it risks letting Tyranitar use Dragon Dance. If Blissey switches out, then it hasn't gained any HP. This cycle can continue throughout the battle, thus preventing you from ever healing your Blissey and potentially opening you up to a special sweep. Softboiled has another minor benefit: if you are using Blissey in Hail or a Sandstorm, then Blissey will be KOed by the weather if it is knocked below 6.25% HP. If it uses Wish on that turn, Blissey will be knocked out by the foul weather before it gets a chance to heal itself. Toxic is a great move on this set regardless of whether you choose Protect or Softboiled: either way, you have two moves to use that aid in stalling. As you are sitting around healing yourself, you will not really be doing anything aside from PP stalling. If you hit your foe with Toxic first, then they will be losing HP while you stall with recovery moves. Toxic is a good move even if you have Toxic Spikes down, as Toxic is this Blissey's only chance to take down Togekiss. It also helps to hit threats like Gyarados on the switch. For the attack, Flamethrower is Blissey's best bet. You definitely want Blissey to have the ability to hit Gengar, so your choices are narrowed down to Flamethrower, Ice Beam, or Thunderbolt just from that. From there, Flamethrower is the primary choice since it hits nearly every Pokémon that is immune to Toxic for super effective damage. It also helps cover Heracross and Scizor, which both like to switch in on Blissey's Toxic. Even though Heatran is immune to both Flamethrower and Toxic, it usually holds Choice Scarf, and can easily be PP stalled or used to pass Wish to a teammate. Ice Beam helps Blissey deal with Mixed Salamence (the Choice Specs version isn't going to get through Blissey regardless) and keeps Dugtrio away, assuming Toxic is not an option; Thunderbolt stops Gyarados from setting up and still hits Skarmory and other Steels for moderate damage. If your team demands extra coverage from Blissey, you can drop Blissey's Toxic or Protect / Softboiled for Seismic Toss or another elemental attack. In the Uber metagame, Seismic Toss is a more reliable option than Flamethrower or Ice Beam, and as such it should replace them instead of Toxic or Protect / Softboiled. Cleric Blissey @ Leftovers Ability: Natural Cure Nature: Calm EVs: 252 Defense/40 Sp. Attack/216 Sp. Defense ~Aromatherapy ~Ice Beam ~Thunder Wave/Toxic ~Softboiled The idea behind this set is fairly straightforward: switch in on a special attacker, relieve your team of any status ailments, and switch right back out in the face of the physical threat which will likely replace the harmless special attacker. The fast-paced nature of competitive DPP play makes the use of the Cleric Blissey a potential liability, so exercise extreme caution in its use. If one of your Pokémon is afflicted with status and you send out Blissey, it is somewhat predictable that you will use Aromatherapy, giving a physical sweeper a free switch-in, so Ice Beam or Thunder Wave is often a better move to use on the switch. The more you know about your opponent's team the better, as you would want to use Ice Beam if you expect Salamence or a Ground-type to be switching in, and Thunder Wave if you expect that Weavile, Metagross, or some other sweeper will switch in. If you use Thunder Wave, you could just rely on that to cripple Gengar and Rotom-A for another Pokémon to take them out, and use Seismic Toss as Blissey's sole attack. However, Gengar and Rotom-A frequently use Substitute and Rest, respectively, so if you are using Seismic Toss you should be sure that another Pokémon on your team can handle these threats. If you want, you could even drop your status for another attack, but status is by far the most generally useful choice. Diverse Blissey Blissey @ Leftovers Ability: Natural Cure Nature: Bold EVs: 252 Defense/148 HP/216 Sp. Attack ~Ice Beam ~Thunderbolt/Seismic Toss ~Thunderwave/Sing/Toxic ~Softboiled This is the Blissey to use if you want to spread status around and not be limited in your attacking options. You can spread any one of three statuses and still have your attacking duo of choice. Any of Flamethrower, Thunderbolt, Ice Beam, Seismic Toss, Hidden Power Ground, and even Grass Knot can be used in the first two slots, depending on what you want your Blissey to threaten/counter. If you use Thunder Wave, you will almost certainly want to use Ice Beam with it. You hit all those Ground-types that think they can safely ignore your chosen status, such as Gliscor, Hippowdon, and friends. Sing makes it harder for many of the Pokémon that feel Blissey is mere "set-up fodder" to come in safely, making Blissey somewhat of a threat, which is always a good thing. If you use Sing, it would be useful to raise your Speed a bit to be faster than enemy Blissey so you can Sing before they heal themselves or their team. Calm Mind Blissey Blissey @ Leftovers Ability: Natural Cure/Serene Grace Nature: Bold/Modest EVs: 252 Defense/252 Sp. Attack/4 HP ~Calm Mind ~Ice Beam ~Thunderbolt ~Softboiled This set utilizes the ever-popular "Boltbeam" combination in conjunction with Calm Mind and a recovery move to pose a considerable threat to anyone who isn't expecting it. Serene Grace works fantastically with this particular set, as a 20% chance of freezing isn't really "hax" at all when you think about it, but Natural Cure is still helpful to rid Blissey of status, Toxic poison in particular. You'll probably want to Calm Mind just once before launching an attack, though, since you may have the benefit of Serene Grace on your side and you won't be able to Calm Mind up as easily as something like Suicune and its fantastic initial defenses. Bold and Modest are both good choices. Modest gives you a chance to OHKO a Gyarados that doesn't invest in HP EVs. 252 Special Attack with Modest also gives you an 87% chance to break 4 HP Raikou's Substitutes, assuming you have the same number of Calm Minds. This prevents it from really setting up against you and trying to Pressure stall, as this means it will only be able to Substitute 5-6 times on average, wasting only 10-12 of your 16 Ice Beam PP. After you Calm Mind a few times, however, the increased Defense of Bold will pay off more, so the question of Bold vs. Modest is really a question of how many Calm Minds you think you'll be able to get in before you are forced to attack. In fact, you can even lower your Special Attack even more and invest in HP EVs if you want even more physical survivability. You can use a few other special attacks, such as Flamethrower, over either of those two. Serene Grace is a great option with Flamethrower, as the increased burn chance can save Blissey's hide sometimes. If you are using this set in Ubers, you should use Thunder over Thunderbolt to abuse the higher power and paralysis chance. Thunder gets perfect accuracy thanks to Kyogre's Drizzle. Also, a 4 HP / 252 Def / 252 SpD Calm spread is recommended due to all of the hard hitting Special attackers in Ubers; the extra Special Attack will not do much anyway. Charm Blissey Blissey @ Leftovers Ability: Natural Cure Nature: Calm EVs: 252 Defense/120 Sp. Attack/136 Sp. Defense ~Charm ~Ice Beam ~Light Screen ~Softboiled With Charm, you're going to be forcing more switches than usual, so you may want to take advantage of Stealth Rock, Spikes, or both. Ideally, you may want to use Charm Blissey like this: switch into a special attacker, Charm the incoming physical attacker (hopefully not the Clear Body Metagross), and Light Screen as the probably physical attacker switches out, racking up potential Stealth Rock / Spikes Damage with every switch. Light Screen makes Blissey a real team player, and works very well with Charm. Qualities Blissey is the #1 Special Wall in the game, no doubt about it. It has the Highest HP stat of ALL Pokemon, and has a very high Sp. Defense, and only 1 weakness, she IS the best special wall in the game. But the downside is, she has a very, very low Defense, but with Charm and Defense Curl, she can wall physical things too. Snorlax has to deal with the lack of an instant recovery move and Rest if it wants to stay alive, opening the door for threats both physical and special to switch in. Cresselia is the next best general wall, but the weakness to Gengar's Shadow Ball instead of an immunity paired with lower stats and having to choose between Rest or Moonlight for healing means Cresselia isn't nearly as good at pure walling. Blissey is a Pokémon that will always, always be a welcome addition to any team, and is basically the only option that covers so many special threats at once. Neither of the other aforementioned Pokémon come even close to Blissey's ability to take hits. She is so defensive, she can be used in UBERS, and suvive a Full HP, Modest, Kyogre with Water Spout, in the Rain. If you "hate Blissey" that's one thing, but please do not pretend there are many viable, one-Pokémon options that can replace her. She's that good. How Blissey is Used Well, She IS the #1 Special Wall in the game, she is obviously used as a Special Wall. She is also a great team helper, and can learn support moves like Aromatherapy and Wish (although, putting them on the same set would be illegal). Not only is she defensive, but she has a very, very large movepool filled with Thunder Wave, Thunderbolt, Ice Beam, Flamethrower, and many, many other moves. She can be pretty offensive too with a couple of Calm Minds. She can even be used in UBERS, and counter powerful special threats like Mewtwo, Kyogre, and Deoxys-A (Beware of Super Power). Other Options Grass Knot: Grass Knot might seem like a great pairing with Flamethrower on the Calm Mind set until you realize that most of its targets are either beaten just as well (or better) by Thunderbolt or are too threatening to let you Calm Mind up against them (Tyranitar). In the case of Tyranitar, you are better off just spamming Serene Grace Flamethrower at it when it switches in and hoping for a burn. Focus Blast: Focus Blast can do fatal damage to Weavile and surprise an incoming Lucario and Tyranitar, but the accuracy is not very reliable. Hidden Power Flying: Hidden Power Flying hurts Fighting-types trying to switch in, particularly Heracross, Breloom, and Infernape. Hidden Power Ground: Hidden Power Ground is a good attack when paired with Flamethrower, as it hits Infernape and Heatran, primarily, but also wears down guys like Tentacruel. It also does enough damage to break Jolteon's Substitute. Counter: Counter may work, especially against Pokémon like Weavile and Tyranitar who think you're switching and are using a Pursuit that will in actuality only have 40 base power, which will do a paltry 34% maximum from Tyranitar and 29% max from Weavile but will OHKO both. At the very least (min damage from Choice Band, 339 Attack Jolly Weavile), Blissey takes 169 HP damage, which will still OHKO Weavile (201 min damage will OHKO standard 405 max Attack Tyranitar). Stealth Rock: Blissey learns Stealth Rock, but she generally has much better things to do with her time and moveslots. Icy Wind: In Uber play, Icy Wind can be used to drop the Speed of certain trouble Pokémon. It lets you Toxic Safeguard Latias and Latios, as well as Taunt Mewtwo. You can also hit some threats on the switch, letting them be countered easier. Charge Beam: Blissey makes good use of Charge Beam with Softboiled and two other special attacks as a more diverse version of the Calm Minder. Snatch: You can use Snatch to counter enemy stat-up Pokémon. How to Counter Blissey Machamp can switch into any Blissey with impunity, as Guts variants welcome a boost Attack boost by way of Thunder Wave and Machamp with Rest / Sleep Talk do not care either way even if they are No Guard variants. Heracross is in a similar boat as Machamp, except it doesn't like paralysis nearly as much. On the flip side, Electivire can switch into Blissey very easily, hoping for a Thunder Wave to activate Motor Drive. It can then hit Blissey with Cross Chop for high damage. Scizor can take advantage of Blissey without Flamethrower and use her as set-up bait. Lucario can also take advantage of Blissey, but in addition to Flamethrower, Lucario also minds Thunder Wave a lot more than Scizor. If Lucario is a special version, it has a shot at 2HKOing those Blissey that don't invest in Special Defense. Snorlax also doesn't care about being paralyzed, nor does Metagross really, and both can hit Blissey hard with either STAB attacks or Pursuit. Some variants of Tyranitar do care about status, but otherwise can switch into Blissey very easily and scare the hell out of her with the notion of "will I Crunch or will I Pursuit?" or, alternately, it can Taunt if it's a Dragon Dance variant. Rhyperior is immune to Thunder Wave, and with the Sandstorm Special Defense boost paired with its high HP and Solid Rock, it doesn't take much damage from Ice Beam, either. Dugtrio's going to have a harder time switching into her in DP thanks to the strong slant towards Ice Beam, and if it is using Life Orb and not Choice Band, it will only do 40-47% to Blissey with Earthquake. Nevertheless, it can trap and destroy her if she's weakened. Life Orb Salamence 2HKOes Blissey with Brick Break or Outrage, which can be a deadly surprise for a Blissey thinking it's switching into Choice Specs Salamence. Togekiss can Nasty Plot up and doesn't take enough damage from anything Blissey does. The only hope Blissey has is to use Toxic and try to just stall it until it dies or use Thunder Wave and bring in a powerful physical attacker like Tyranitar. Toxic fails to the rare Baton Pass Togekiss, who can Nasty Plot up and then go to something like Lucario, Life Orb Gengar, or Infernape and put the hurt on Blissey and then sweep the rest of your team. Celebi can use Leech Seed to let just about anything you can't OHKO stall you indefinitely thanks to the massive HP drain. Alternately, it can Calm Mind up and then Baton Pass out to another threat, much like Togekiss. Dusknoir and Spiritomb don't really care about Thunder Wave or any of Blissey's attacks. They can Pain Split to heal off any damage while severely hurting Blissey. Both have access to powerful physical attacks. If Blissey uses Toxic, they still aren't lost, as many Dusknoir and Spiritomb have Rest. Mismagius doesn't want to be statused, but it can use Substitute and Calm Mind to nullify the threat of status and your special attacks. Similarly, Rotom-A can protect itself from status with Substitute, and Charge Beam up to +6 Special Attack to 2HKO Blissey with Thunderbolt or Hidden Power Fighting. In fact, most Pokémon without a 4x weakness and average Special Defense can beat Blissey just by using Rest and stalling out the PP of her moves. In a similar manner, Skarmory can come in on any Blissey without Thunderbolt or Flamethrower, set up Spikes, Roost off the damage, and then use Whirlwind to shuffle around your team. Using Pain Split on anything will heal them massive amounts of HP and seriously cut Blissey's HP. The multitude of Pokémon that can learn Trick, including prominent special attackers such as Gengar, the Rotom formes, and Togekiss, among others, can use Blissey as a target. Being a slow wall, Blissey really does not like being Tricked on items like Choice Scarf, Choice Specs, Choice Band, or even Black Sludge. In Ubers, Garchomp can take on those versions without Ice Beam easily, as it's threatened only by a burn from Flamethrower or the slow effects of Toxic.